A job at the Sudan Civil Service, for instance, required either a first-class degree, or a Blue plus a second

Wisden had been among the first to question the true merit of university cricket, removing its traditional list of Oxbridge blues in 1993. Matthew Engel, the editor, was widely condemned; one critic observed he was a "political scientist from Manchester University". But Engel, with some justification, felt the roll call had become the "biggest anachronism in the book". He added: "even the Oxford Mail and Cambridge Evening News stopped sending reporters."

A Blue had once denoted more than a first-class career: it opened doors. A job at the Sudan Civil Service, for instance, required either a first-class degree, or a Blue plus a second - which is how Guy Pawson, Oxford's captain in 1910, got in.

D. Pringle,' 'The end of first-class university cricket', L.Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2021), 116

And there was Warne, bowling beautifully with a method thought to have been relegated to the museum

Shortly after lunch on the first day the Edgbaston Test in 1993, Shane Warne was bowing leg-breaks to Alec Stewart, who had momentarily discarded both his helmet and his faded baseball cap in favour of a real, old-fashioned, three lions of England version. As he pushed forward he looked the image of his father at the crease. behind the stumps, there was Ian Healy wearing his baggy cap and air of ageless Australian aggression. And there was Warne, bowling beautifully with a method thought to have been relegated to the museum.

M. Engel, 'Notes by the editor', id. (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1994), 9

If you have grandchildren, take them

The Oval, Southampton, Canterbury, Edgbaston, Arundel, Chester-le-Street, Old Trafford, Worcester, Headingley.  These are the grounds where (subject to fitness etc), Shane Warne is due to bowl for Hampshire in  first class-cricket in 2007. If you have grandchildren, take them, if you don't, go anyway - so you can tell them.

M. Engel, 'Notes by the editor', id. (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2007), 26

I took my parents.

Year after year, the wonderful folks at the ICC assemble the world's best players and get them to play bad cricket

Year after year, the wonderful folks at the ICC assemble the world's best players and get them to play bad cricket. If they staged W.G.'s XI v The Don's XI at the Elysian Oval with S.F. Barnes bowling to victor Trumper, they would find some way of making the occasion dismal. It's a gift real: a kind of anti-showmanship.

M. Engel, 'Notes by the editor', id. (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2006), 17